The Star's Opinion

One of the region’s top funeral directors has spoken of how the industry has changed over the course of his 20-year career.

Jamie Knight, founder of Handsworth-based J.F. Knight Funeral Directors, which recently celebrated its first year in business, said the personalisation of funerals and the diminishing role of religion are increasingly deciding how funerals are arranged.

“The biggest change in funerals is having what we call ‘funeral officiants’,” said Jamie.

“They go along, they meet the family, they get a really good background on who’s died. That service then becomes all about the person that’s died, about their parents, about them growing up, school, kids, holidays, work – and I think families are getting more from that.

“Of course, if a family still has a religious belief, that’s great, but more and more don’t, they want it about the person. We find that a lot now – people come in and say ‘I went to a funeral last week and there were no prayers but it was really good’ and that’s ideal for them.

“It’s giving people extra options. So there have been a lot of changes, and I like to think that it’s gone more from mourning a death to celebrating a life on many occasions.”

Jamie Knight is a fully-qualified funeral director and has been a recognised figure in the Sheffield funeral industry for two decades. After working as a driver, bearer and mortuary assistant, he trained to become a funeral director, gaining his Diploma in Funeral Directing, and has since gone on to arrange and conduct more than 1,000 funerals.